Augmented Reality.

One of the great things about the internet is how it can make existing media do new and amazing things. Witness the latest way that’s happening: through a technology called “augmented reality.”

Augmented reality is so ultra-neato that today we have two links. The first is to the latest issue of Esquire magazine that, when held up to your web cam, generates movies on-screen.

The second is to a micro site for the Jack Links Beef Jerky Sasquatch. Here, you simply print out the sasquatch “footprint”, hold it up to your web cam and watch what happens.

There are so many ways to use this technology – an agency down the street developed an augmented reality game for one of their clients, using the product package as the physical element. There are augmented reality business cards and augmented reality baseball cards. So there’s great potential to create something that consumers want to seek out and spend time with.

Banners.

True story: Some of the best banner ideas I’ve ever seen were done by a team that had never, ever done anything digital prior to being given the assignment. How did they do it? They simply learned a little about what’s possible online, then did the same thing we all do every day: come up with lots of cool ideas.

Digital is a big priority these days. We know we must be able to solve our clients’ problems with campaign ideas that include interactive, social media and mobile components.

The good news is that mastering digital is easy and fun for the whole family. To that end, every week I’m going to pass around a link to a web site that may inspire.

First up, a showcase of the best web banners from around the world. To quote that guy in that one Star Trek episode who looked like a baby but talked like an adult: I hope you relish it as much as I.

PS – that team I was talking about? You can see some of the work they did, for Zippo, on the same site here.